Moncton, November 6, 2008
Notes for an address to the Atlantic Symposium
of the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants francophones
du Nouveau-Brunswick
Graham Fraser – Commissioner of Official Languages
Check against delivery
Mr. Larocque, Mr. Doucet, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to be here with you today at this symposium. Like Mr. Doucet, I also wish to congratulate you. I am always very happy to witness the vitality of our country’s linguistic minority communities. As a province, New Brunswick continues to be a leader in protecting and developing its two language communities. And in the Atlantic region, I am seeing considerable developments in language rights, a subject that I will address tomorrow as part of the Symposium on Language Rights at the University of Moncton Law Faculty.
This region has its own challenges in terms of French-language education. Events such as this symposium are an essential part of finding solutions. This is important work, and I congratulate you on this initiative.
For my part, I would like to address two major issues, community exodus and illiteracy, as well as potential solutions to reverse these trends.
1. Challenges
a. Community exodus
Currently, the Atlantic provinces share a common challenge: community exodus. This exodus can take many forms. First of all, it may be an exodus towards another part of the province. In New Brunswick, for example, Francophones are leaving the province’s northern regions and heading south, mainly to Moncton and Dieppe, where the Francophone population is denser. In Prince Edward Island, they are leaving the Évangéline region for the major urban centre of Charlottetown, where there are more job opportunities. In Nova Scotia, Francophones are leaving Cape Breton and the southern regions for Halifax.
In addition to this regional exodus, Atlantic Francophone communities must deal with the exodus to other provinces, an issue shared by all provinces in the region.
Regardless of the destination, the effect is the same: exodus reduces—at times considerably—the number of students learning French in the Atlantic region they leave. In less populated regions, this may mean shutting down a school. In others, it means losing the next generation of Francophones.
I think this is one of the biggest challenges your provinces face in terms of French-language instruction. While the issue does depend on several factors, such as job opportunities, cost of living and availability of services, access to French-language learning opportunities is an incentive for people to stay in the region.
b. Illiteracy
But this is not the only major issue you are facing together. The Atlantic region also has a very high illiteracy rate among its French students. In New Brunswick, 48% of youth aged 16 to 24 have not reached Level 3 literacy, the minimum level required to function in Canadian society. This rate increases to 66% for the province’s entire Francophone population, which is considerably higher than the illiteracy rate for Anglophones. As for the other Atlantic provinces, it is very likely that the data are similar.
These results are alarming. The situation is critical. These numbers show that a large portion of the next generation of Francophones has difficulty reading, understanding and using written documents in their everyday life. This is something that could hinder the healthy development of your communities. Because of television and DVDs, youth think they can avoid reading. But that’s a myth. Because of the Internet, reading and writing are now more important than ever before.
A quick word on the challenge of attracting rights-holders: Even in New Brunswick, where four out of five Francophone children attend French-language schools, there is still work to be done. We must not forget that the right to minority-language education is slowly disappearing.
You are condemned to excellence. You have no choice in the matter. In a society where education is the door to success, we must offer students a quality education. No parent will accept a principle of educational mediocrity, however important it may be.
And if the illiteracy rate is high among youth, it is partly due to the lack of parental support where reading is concerned. This makes your job as teachers that much harder, but that much more important as well.
This issue was discussed on September 19 and 20 at the Atlantic Forum on Francophone Literacy. And the message was clear: more funding is necessary in order to address the problem.
Already, participants have agreed to develop an action plan for all Atlantic provinces. This plan will create a common strategy for all provinces, while enabling the community, stakeholders and learners to work together.
I think this is a very good start. The first step is to recognize the problem and understand the situation, and thanks to the Forum, this has been accomplished. As teachers, I strongly encourage you to participate in this process and share your knowledge and expertise in the field.
As for me, I will be closely following the next steps. They could serve as a model for Canada’s other Francophone communities.
2. Potential solutions
I briefly raised two major issues: community exodus and illiteracy. While these are very different issues, common solutions can be used to address them.
I think building a Francophone sense of identity is the most effective means of countering these trends. When members of a community have a sense of cultural attachment, the community develops and grows stronger.
Of course, building a sense of identity is not always easy. I noticed that this particular topic will be raised this afternoon and tomorrow in two different workshops. As teachers, I encourage you to continue your work in this field. While school is not the only place where Francophone identity is developed, it certainly plays a leading role.
You are role models for your students. They look to you, as they look to their parents and families, to understand where they come from and to learn about the community they belong to.
It is also important that building a sense of identity start in early childhood. I indeed recognize that funding for this group continues to be insufficient. However, early childhood education is part of the educational continuum, because it is at this pivotal stage that children start learning not only their language but also their culture. If learning initiatives begin early on, children are likely to already have a solid knowledge base by the time they begin elementary school, which may help the illiteracy situation down the road.
However, building a sense of identity does not only take place at school. It is a shared responsibility between one’s school, community and family. In the Atlantic region, there are many examples of this type of partnership. These include the Jeux de l’Acadie, which bring together participants from schools in all Atlantic provinces and help build Francophone—and Acadian—pride among youth. And this initiative has already been around for 29 years—which I consider to be quite an accomplishment already. I was also happy to learn that these games were held in Halifax this year, allowing other Atlantic Francophone communities to take center stage.
This is only one example of a best practice, but it shows that Atlantic Francophone communities are committed to their development.
Recently, the New Brunswick government created the Commission on Francophone Schools. What a great initiative! By giving all Francophones across the province the opportunity to participate in consultations, the Commission will be able to better identify the needs of various Francophone communities. This also makes it easier to find ways of overcoming the challenges specific to Francophone education in the province.
As well, this initiative could serve as a model for other Francophone communities in Canada, making the Atlantic region a leader where the development of its Francophone communities is concerned.
In addition to this type of provincial initiative, I also look forward to more support from the federal government. The Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality sets out increased funding for Francophone education. But unlike the 2003 Action Plan, it does not have any objectives in terms of rights-holder recruitment or minority community education in general. I invite the federal government to share the details of this commitment with official language communities, since many of our communities depend on government funding to support various development and vitality measures.
Conclusion
I encourage you as teachers to lobby for the tools you need to develop a winning curriculum. With the necessary tools, you will also be able to focus your energy on the transmission of culture, which is essential to building young people’s sense of identity.
I realize that French instruction in minority communities remains a challenge due to many outside influences and obstacles. I congratulate you on your perseverance and your commitment to this very important work.
Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Centre scolaire des Grands-Vents in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and to talk to teachers at the elementary and secondary levels. These teachers impressed me with their enthusiasm and positive attitude towards the major challenges of this official language minority community.
I should point out that the Office of the Commissioner is an important partner in your work. My representative in the Atlantic Region, Gilbert Taylor, wants to hear about both your challenges and your successes. Please do not hesitate to contact him, as well as the Ottawa office, to let us know about any challenges you face and any initiatives that are taking place in your communities.
Thank you.
